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Category: Budget

State of the Union Address set for January 27th

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President Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday, January 27th, at 9 pm Eastern time (6:00pm Pacific).

During his speech, the President will outline his priorities for the coming year as well as recount what he believes are the achievements from his first year in office.  Some political insiders had suggested that the President might wait to deliver his State of the Union address until after Congress completes its work on the health care reform.  But the White House ultimately decided against waiting beyond January for the address so that the President can use it to set the tone for the coming year.

In a State of the Union address, presidents typically preview policies and themes from their new budget, which comes out soon afterward. On Monday, administration officials confirmed that on February 1st Obama will submit his new budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins October 1, 2010.

FY10 Appropriations Process Comes to an End

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**Chart Updated 12/22**

With passage of the Defense Appropriations bill in the Senate over the past weekend, the FY10 appropriations process came to an end. The 2010 process included nearly $11 million of appropriations specifically for the University of Washington, including: $4.6 million for the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies, $4 million for the Puget Sound Ecosystem Research Initiative, $1 million for the Washington Biofuels Industry Development Project, $880,000 for the NW National Marine Renewable Energy Center, and $200,000 for the UW Bothell Nursing Faculty Consortium Training Program. Coverage of important federal agnecy/program figures can be founds here. In many cases, federal agencies that received significant funding through the Recovery Act (e.g. NIH, NSF, DoE Office of Science) saw only modest increases in the regular appropriations process.

Bill House Committee Full House Senate Committee Full Senate House Conference Senate Conference President
Agriculture 6/18 7/9 7/7 8/4 10/7 10/8 10/21
Commerce, Justice, Science 6/9 6/18 6/25 11/5 12/10 12/13  12/16 
Defense 7/22 7/30 9/10 10/6 12/16  12/19 12/19
Energy and Water 7/7 7/17 7/9 7/29 10/1 10/15 10/28
Financial Services 7/7 7/16 7/9 12/13  12/10  12/13  12/16 
Homeland Security 6/12 6/24 6/18 7/9 10/15 10/20 10/28
Interior, Environ. 6/18 6/26 6/25 9/24 10/29 10/29 10/31
Labor-HHS-Education 7/17 7/24 7/30 12/13  12/10  12/13  12/16
Leg. Branch 6/12 6/19 6/18 7/6 9/25 9/29 10/1
Military Con.-VA 6/23 7/10 7/7 11/17 12/10  12/13  12/16 
State-For. Ops. 6/23 7/9 7/9 12/13  12/10  12/13  12/16
Transpo.-HUD 7/17 7/23 7/30 9/17 12/10  12/13  12/16

House Passes Jobs Bill with Higher Ed. Provisions

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Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a jobs package (H.R. 2847 -Jobs for Mainstreet Act of 2010) that provides $75 billion of unspent funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for assistance to states and local governments in avoiding government layoffs and supporting infrastructure repair and modernization. 

Of note to the higher education community in the bill is an additional $300 million for the College Work-Study program, as well as the following aid for public colleges and universities:

“Education Jobs Fund: $23 billion for an Education Jobs Fund to help States support an estimated 250,000 education jobs over the next two years.  95% of the funds will be allocated by States to school districts and public institutions of higher education to retain or create jobs to provide educational services and to modernize, renovate, and repair public education facilities. The remaining 5% of funds is reserved for State education-related jobs and administration of the Education Jobs Fund.”

The Senate will not act on a companion bill until January at the earliest.

Appropriations Committee Summary of H.R. 2847

Future of Tax Extenders Legislation Remains Unclear

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Despite House passage of the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (H.R. 4213), it appears possible that tax provisions important to the higher education community may expire at the end of the month. The provisions include the education tuition deduction, the IRA charitable rollover, and the research and development tax credit. Disagreements in the Senate over offsets for the tax provisions, as well as the laser focus on health care reform, make passage of the legislation by the end of the month unlikely. However, it remains possible that the a bill will be passed in early 2010 that would be retroactive to the beginning of the year.

FY10 Appropriations Moving to Conclusion

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Yesterday, details on a House-Senate omnibus FY10 appropriations package (H.R. 3288) emerged. The omnibus package will contain 6 of the 7 appropriations bills that have yet to be signed into law -with only the Defense Appropriations bill remaining. The Defense bill is being utilized as a final vehicle to advance measures that the leadership in Congress wants approved before the end of the year. The current plan would have all 7 remaining appropriations bills signed into law by the end of the month. Of note specifically for the University of Washington in the omnibus is $200,000 for a UW Bothell Nursing Faculty Consortium Training program. Additionally, significant funding is expected in the Defense bill for the UW Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies. More broadly, items of note in the omnibus FY10 appropriations package for the higher education community include:

Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations

Education-

  • Pell Grant maximum award is funded at $5,550. This total includes $4,860 ($17.495 billion of discretionary funding) with plus $690 from the CCRAA ($631 million in mandatory funding)
  • Javits is level funded at $9.6 million
  • GAAN is level funded at $31 million
  • SEOG is level funded at $757 million
  • Federal Work Study is level funded at $980 million
  • LEAP is level funded at $63.8 million
  • TRIO is increased by $5 million to $853 million
  • GEAR UP is increased $10 million to $323 million

National Institutes of Health (NIH)-

  • NIH is funded at $31.0 billion, $250 million above the request and $692 million above non-ARRA FY 2009 enacted level. Similar to past years, $300 million will be transferred to the Global HIV/AIDS Fund.

Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations

National Science Foundation (NSF)-

  • NSF is funded at $6.93 billion, $436 million above the regular FY 2009 enacted level, but below the Administration’s request of $7 billion. Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities account would receive $5.617 billion, the Education and Human Resources account would receive $872.7 million, and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account would receive $117.29 million.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-

  • NASA is funded at overall at $18.72 billion, an increase of $941 million over FY 2009 enacted. Within NASA budget, the Science Mission Directorate funded at $4.469 billion, a decrease of $34 million, and the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate nearly level funded at $501 million.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-

  • NOAA is funded overall at $4.737 billion, with the National Sea Grant Program funded at $63.0 million, an $8 million increase over FY 2009, and the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research account is increased to $438.8 million.

National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST)-

  • Within NIST, the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP) program is funded at $124 million, an increase of $14.7 million over FY 2009, and the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) is funded at $69.9 million, an increase of $4.9 million over FY 2009.

Military Construction – Veterans Affairs Appropriations
           
Veterans Affairs (VA)- 

  • Within the VA, the Medical and Prosthetics Research Program is funded at $581 million, an increase of $71 million over FY 2009.

State-Foreign Operations Approprations

Agency for International Development (USAID)-

  • The Higher Education in Africa Program is funded at no less than $25 million with the report language stating that higher education partnerships between American and African institutions of higher education should be expanded and $15 million “shall be awarded in an open and competitive process…”  The Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) is funded at $31.5 million.

The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation is not funded.